Zila lowers her chin, hair tumbling over her face.
“I have lived my life as best I could.” She squeezes Nari’s hand. “I have found happiness. I have worked hard, seen places and met people who bring me joy. My squad was my second family, after I lost my first, and I have devoted my life to preparing what you will need—but there have been adventures as well. Laughter. I have found a third family here, beyond all expectation. I think you will worry, now you know where I am. I want you to know that I have been happy. But please know as well that there is not a day that passes I do not think of Cat, and what I helped bring about.”
She lifts her head again. Looking at me across the centuries.
“I ask for your forgiveness. I hope you understand I did it all for the best, and know that through this sacrifice, we have safeguarded a future for the galaxy. The path ahead of you is uncertain. I do not know what is to come. But I know I am grateful to have known you, Tyler. Honored to have served under you. And I feel blessed beyond measure to have called you my friend.”
I reach out to the image, tears spilling down my face as my fingers pass through it. I think about what it must have been, to live with that weight. The burden of the galaxy’s future on your shoulders.
“Zee,” I whisper. “Of course I forgive you.”
“Commander,” Nari says, addressing the air. “I trust you are listening. You may now access Omega Protocol, Nodes 6 through 15. Ensure Node 10 is delivered to Aurora O’Malley personally. You may also access the facilities on Epsilon Deck, Section Zero. Passcodes to follow. Please follow all instructions exactly. The lives of two very brave soldiers are at stake.”
“I believe our calculations are correct,” Zila says. “And enough time has now elapsed from our disappearance to ensure no paradox events.” She nods, almost to herself, chewing a lock of her hair just like she used to when lost in thought. “Yes. Yes, it will work. It must work.”
Nari Kim looks back to me, a smile crinkling her eyes.
“Punch that bleach-head in the arm for me, Jones. And tell your sister thanks. Good hunting, legionnaire. Burn bright against the night.”
Zila looks into the projection, reaching out toward me.
My fingers touch hers, back across an ocean of time and tears.
“Farewell, my friend,” she smiles.
And the recording ends.
“Dammit … ,” Adams growls.
I look up at him, my eye blurred with tears, my mind reeling with everything I’ve learned. The impossibility, the enormity—it’s almost too much to wrap my head around. But the look in Adams’s eyes is enough to drag me back to reality, away from conspiracies centuries in the making, suffered heartache and hard-won joy. I sniff hard, wipe my sodden cheeks.
“What is it?”
Adams is staring at the holoplayer, his face a grim mask. The images of Zila and Nari Kim have disappeared, replaced by a scrolling stream of passcodes. “I’ll have to review the new data we’ve just unlocked. But from the way they were talking … I think it’s just as we’ve feared.”
“Look, I don’t know what the hells is happening here, but—”
“It’s like Founder Madran said, Tyler.” Adams speaks Zila’s name with something close to reverence. The way a minister speaks about the Maker.
They think of her as the Third Founder, I realize.
“She only knew for certain what happened up to the Battle of Terra,” Adams continues. “The point where she was stripped from this timeline. For all her genius, Zila Madran couldn’t actually see the future. She only remembered what she’d already seen. So she couldn’t have known.”
“About the plot on Aurora Station?”
He nods. “But not just that. All our contingencies, all the planning we have in place from this point forward to ensure the defeat of the Ra’haam, revolved around the Trigger and the Weapon.”
He drags one metal hand across his stubbled scalp.
“And they’re gone,” I breathe. “Vanished at the Battle of Terra.”
“The Weapon, the Trigger, Aurora O’Malley.” Adams turns to the viewport on the wall, stars splayed across the dark beyond. “Everything we’ve done was to ensure their presence here and now to strike the killing blow against the enemy before it blooms. And after all of that, after hundreds of years, messages and protocols passed down in secret from Founder to Commander to Successor across the centuries …” He looks down at his empty hands. “We have nothing.”